Everybody needs a neighbor like Chase Thomas. When a fire suddenly started Thursday night in a house on his street in Charlotte, N.C., three family members made it safely outside, but their dog was trapped inside.

Thomas, 20, was driving by the house when he saw the flames. Using his cellphone as a flashlight, he accompanied the homeowner into the smoky, burning house. They both called the dog’s name, but got no response. “I checked one room and I checked another, covering my mouth, searching the room, and I heard some scratching,” Thomas told FOX 46. “I brushed around and I felt for fur, and I got the dog.”

Moments after they emerged from the house, the roof collapsed and the fire spread, Thomas told WCNC.

The homeowner was treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation. The house is a total loss, but its occupants are grateful to be alive — and to have Thomas living nearby.

Like most heroes, Thomas insists he’s not one. “I was just doing anything that anyone else would try to do,” he told FOX 46. “I had a dog at one point and that’s a family member to me, so going back in was doing what I could to help.”